In the next few days the company will give the vehicle identification numbers to retailers as well as coming up with a process for owners to check if their vehicles are affected.
VW will then start contacting owners.
The company stressed that all the vehicles are still safe and roadworthy.
VW plans to present its plans for resolving the problems with the affected vehicles to regulators next month.
The specific number of vehicles affected under each brand are:
Volkswagen cars 508,276
Audi 393,450
Seat 76,773
Skoda 131,569
VW commercial vehicles 79,838
Total 1,189,906
The emissions scandal began in the US when regulators discovered that certain vehicles made by Volkswagen were fitted with software that would make their diesel engines operate differently when they sensed that the car was being tested.
It meant that the vehicles emitted considerably more pollutants in real world driving conditions than they had in testing.
As a result of the scandal, VW chief executive Martin Winterkorn resigned and was replaced by former Porsche boss Matthias Mueller.
The carmaker has so far set aside €6.5bn to cover the costs of the scandal.
It has said that 11 million vehicles worldwide are affected, of which 500,000 were in the US.
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